Ahem. That's 3 copies of World of Warcraft ! Even if this is "required for install" space only, and the actual OS takes "merely" 5gb (which is one copy of World of Warcraft), it is still insane.

IMO Microsoft is straying farther and farther from the concept of Operating System being just that - an Operating System. A thin layer of software which provides basic memory management, a GUI, and a universal interface to your machine's peripherals - and leaves the overwhelming majority of your system resources FREE for the programs you install and run on it.

I'm sticking with my stripped-down version of XP forever. If a time comes when I can't run it anymore, I am going to migrate to Linux.

Correct. The merged windows tablet, media center, and all sorts of other stuff into the beta for testing. If you want the slimmed down version you can use the Vista update advisor thing and you pick your options. The tool will recommend the version with only the options you want. For me I will get it sans tablet/media center stuff.

Well, I let Vista install over night and now it's running as my main OS. My XP install got fubared so I might as well try it out. I'll post comments throughout the day as I use it for my everyday needs.

So, I'm building a new box this week and since I need to reinstall my OS I thought I'd play with Vista for a bit. There are two versions which should I grab? Building an AMD 64 based system so should I grab the 64-bit or should I evade it like the plague like XP 64-bit.

My SLi/AMD X2 on the 64-bit version was very, very iffy. Safe mode worked 9 out of 10 times and normal mode loaded but with a black screen and a visible mouse cursor 9 out of 10 times. Waiting for RC1 before I take that plunge again.

One of my roommates works at Microsoft and came home the other day with a couple copies of Vista, so I gave the new x64 beta a shot. No driver support for my Santa Cruz sound card (big surprise) so I'm running off my AC97 onboard audio. Doesn't matter that much, though, because Foobar2000 crashes when loading music, and iTunes won't install. I should have gone 32bit I suppose.

Other than that? Eh, it's okay. Needs to start up a hell of a lot faster.